Man, that 30% of the country (60-70% of the democratic party) that is ride or die on Biden is WILD. These guys live in their own little world. I recently came across some threads talking about how they views Biden, and the weird propagandistic framing like MOST PROGRESSIVE PRESIDENT EVER is just....too much.
Look, guys. Biden isn't amazing. He's tolerable. That's all I can really say. I don't think he was the most progressive president ever. He's only the most progressive since Johnson, who was the last New Deal president. After that, we had carter who was a moderate for the time, Clinton who went hard centrist, Obama who was basically a slightly more progressive Clinton, and now Biden, who is basically a slightly more progressive Obama.
Biden's accomplishments aren't amazing. He's done some good things, yes, but he's quite milquetoast in practice. He was very watered down compared to what progressives wanted, and then he barely accomplished his own agenda. I don't blame him for this, I put the blame where it belongs, on the courts and congress. Biden tried to at least pass significant parts of his agenda, and was largely railroaded at every opportunity. That's not HIS fault. That's the other branches of government's fault. Unlike what Harry S Truman once said, the buck doesn't stop here.
But let's not act like, despite that, Biden is some progressive champion. He's not. He's the "nothing will fundamentally change" guy. The "let's appeal to John Kasich voters" guy. The "work means dignity" guy (although to be fair leftists are terrible on the issue of work itself if you ask them too).
And let's face it, Biden has very low approval numbers. He's gone back up to 38%, But keep in mind that not everyone in that 38% is passionate about him. If asked, I'd probably contribute to the approval rating, yet here I'm bashing him. Why? because I can understand the dude is kinda sorta trying while also recognizing he's milquetoast AF and no one (outside of hardcore neoliberal dems) really like him. They tolerate him. He's the saltine crackers and water president. That's all.
It's the same with the economy. Die hard democrats will play up the economic numbers like lowest unemployment ever, high GDP growth, and high stock market. Did they ever consider that maybe there's more to the economy than that? I've been perpetually negative about the economy since entering into it. my mind is still in the great recession, because as far as I'm concerned, nothing really improved. Going from 8-10% unemployment to 4% doesn't actually fix the problems with the economy as I can see it. And traditional economic measurements don't matter to me, as that human centered/humanist capitalist who thinks we need to move away from traditional measures somewhat.
Honestly, I actually just...hate capitalism as it is currently practiced. I hate that this is life. That we're expected to work for a boss for 40 hours a week for crap pay as a wage slave, and then do that for the rest of our life until we're too old. Then we end up (finally) on a form of basic income but then our bodies are breaking down and we can't even enjoy our lives any more. Honestly, yeah, I want more to life than that. And I think millions of others do too.
Democrats are just delusionally in their own little world. Maybe not as much as the trumpers are. Those guys are admittedly just screaming that everything is so bad under Biden but then if we had Trump they'd be looking at the same figures and going on about how amazing he is. And they ARE screaming about crime and illegal immigration waves that don't actually exist. Perhaps compared to them, the Biden bros are the sane ones, but I feel like all of these comparisons are just who is the tallest kid in kindergarten. It's not really a matter of being good, just less crappy than the alternatives.
And that's how I see Biden. He's less crappy than the alternative. That's all I have to say about him. He's not Trump, he's not as dangerous to democracy as Trump. He doesn't have the psychotic views Trump has, but he's just....a milquetoast moderate no one really wants, but we're all forced to be stuck with.
If I were to compare him to a previous president, he's the second coming of Jimmy Carter, and that is NOT where you wanna be as a party. Because at that point you're on the cusp of electoral oblivion.
And that's one of the big reasons I'm so ride or die on Biden for the general. Biden has done SOME good things, but let's not kid ourselves, he's not great, and we're in a very dangerous position right now. Not just for the democrats, but democracy in general. The democrats is bad enough, the dems just threw away a party realignment in their direction by abandoning the obama coalition and going all in with suburban centrists, which is contributing to the extreme political polarization we see today. It's acting as a form of brain drain on the republicans, while making the democrats more centrist and milquetoast. It's allowing the republicans to become more populist and even openly fascist. It's NOT good for the country as a whole. That's why this realignment is going to crap. We're taking the bad path, the one that will potentially screw over the left for an entire generation, if we don't see the end of democracy altogether.
And for me, the only way to stave off this electoral oblivion is...reelecting Joe Biden. Trust me, I HATE saying that, but think of it like this. if you time traveled to the 1970s and could vote, and you saw where the democrats and the country were going after carter, would you vote for carter? Even though he himself was milquetoast BS that no one likes? Idk about you, but I WOULD. Because keeping Reagan away from the country was essential, regardless of your thoughts of the alternative.
I'm not a hard core blue no matter whoer, to me, this is just living to fight another day. It's a tactical retreat in the face of a hard electoral reality that the democrats are between a rock and a hard place, and the GOP winning in 2024 could be potentially disastrous for the country long into the future. As I said in 2016, I'd be willing to throw one election away if it meant that we got the next 40 years. but now if we lose this election, we might be screwed for 40 years. That's what's changed for me, and that's why I'm voting differently than in 2016 and 2020.
But yeah. Let's not get carried away here. Biden is milquetoast. He isnt AS BAD as I thought he would be, he HAS tried to move left, but let's face it, dude's a 6/10 at best. Better than the 4-5/10 I imagined he would govern as, but still not amazing. The "he's the most progressive president ever" people are delusional. I mean, vote for the man, but let's not sniff his farts and say they smell like roses. They don't.
That's all I have to say.
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